Analysis Topic: Stock & Financial Markets

Wednesday, June 11, 2014

One of the most salient features of the market environment of recent months is the evolution of investor psychology. From March through May, stocks experienced a classic internal correction in which the most overbought and overvalued stocks declined while fairly valued large caps remained buoyant.

The rationale behind this strategy was the determination of money managers not to give back the big gains from the 2013 rally. Instead of selling everything they simply moved money out of last year’s top-performing (but overvalued) small caps and moved money into stocks sporting lower P/E ratios and higher dividend yields. Consequently, the benchmark S&P 500 large cap index held up well throughout the March-May correction, as did the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

Tuesday, June 10, 2014

In an unprecedented move to fight off the threat of deflation, ECB cut its main interest rate to near zero at 0.15%, and its interest rate on deposits to a negative 0.1% for the first time. This means ECB will now be charging banks 0.1% to hold their reserves. ECB hopes these aggressive measures would spur banks to ramp up lending, and also weaken the euro. France has long been arguing that high euro exchange rate is holding back the economic recovery in the Euro Zone.

Tuesday, June 10, 2014

Courtesy of Doug Short: With no economic news to distract, the market’s levitation continued, although at a reduced pace. The S&P 500 spent the day in a relatively narrow trading range between its late morning high and afternoon low (+0.31% and -0.12%). How narrow? The 0.43% intraday range was at the 11th percentile of the 109 market days thus far in 2014. The index closed with a 0.09% gain, modest — but this was the ninth record close in eleven sessions.

Tuesday, June 10, 2014

For all those analysts (including this one) who thought the debt binge of the previous decade marked end of the Age of Leverage, well, not so fast. It turns out that memories are short and government printing presses are powerful, and this combination has turned the "Great Deleveraging" into a minor speed bump on the road to something even more extreme. As the following chart illustrates, the growth in total US debt flattened in 2009 and 2010, with government borrowing more-or-less offsetting a decrease in consumer and business loans. But now the trend is once again onward and upward across the board.

Monday, June 09, 2014

"Groups of women were crushing each other..., a real mob, more brutal for covetousness....the furnace-like heat with which the shop was ablaze came above all from the selling, from the bustle at the counters... There was the continuous roar of the machine at work, of customers crowding into the departments, dazzled by the merchandise and then propelled towards the cash-desk. And it was all regulated and organized with the remorselessness of a machine: the vast horde of women were as if caught in the wheels of an inevitable force." ~ Émile Zola: The Ladies' Paradise (1883)

Monday, June 09, 2014

Current Position of the Market

SPX: Very Long-term trend - The very-long-term cycles are in their down phases, and if they make their lows when expected, there will be another steep decline into late 2014. However, the Fed policy of keeping interest rates low has severely curtailed the full downward pressure potential of the 40-yr and 120-yr cycles.

Saturday, June 07, 2014

Another good week for stocks. The third week in a row the market has gained about 1%. The market displayed some choppiness early in the week, dealing with the OEW 1929 pivot. But then cleared it on Thursday, as it made new all time highs every day again except Tuesday. For the week the SPX/DOW gained 1.25%, the NDX/NAZ gained 1.75% and the DJ World index gained 1.35%. Economic reports for the week were mixed. On the uptick: ISM manufacturing/services, construction spending, factory orders, auto sales and consumer credit. On the downtick: the ADP, monthly payrolls, investor sentiment, the M1-multiplier, the WLEI, plus weekly jobless claims and the trade balance worsened. Next week we get reports on Retail sales, Export/Import prices and the PPI.

Saturday, June 07, 2014

This morning we had to deal with the monthly Jobs Report. The market was nervous since the ADP Jobs Report on Wednesday came in well below expectations. Would we meet with the same disappointment? Not at all. The number came in Goldilocks again. Not too hot and not too cold. We also saw wages rise nicely. The result was another up day for the averages. With this up day we are now extremely overbought on all the short-term sixty minute-charts. That said, we were also extremely overbought on those same averages coming in to today's action, and that certainly didn't stop the market from moving higher. Overbought is staying that way for now.

Saturday, June 07, 2014

Last week, the Commerce Department unexpectedly revised first quarter GDP growth down to negative, -1.0%. The Fed reported its National Business Activity Index, a weighted average of 85 economic indicators the Fed believes are important, fell from +.34 in March to -.32 in April. The Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence report showed that those who plan to buy a home in the next six months declined to 4.9%, its lowest level in 21 months, and those who plan to buy major appliances fell to its lowest level since 2011.

Friday, June 06, 2014

It's been a wild and wooly week for students of the economy and politics. A lot of significant developments on a number of subjects took place: ALL OF THEM NEGATIVE for the private sector and public. I will be covering a number of subjects in this week's Weekly Wrap:

Hammering the ECONOMY

Constitutional crisis Unfolding

European banks still in DEEP trouble and economies as well.

Beware Suppressed Volatility

ECB meeting: NO SURPRISES - A "Let them eat cake" moment for the Eurozone

"Government is not reason, it is not eloquence, it is force, like fire it is a dangerous servant, and a fearful master." - George Washington

Friday, June 06, 2014

BIG PICTURE - The economies of the developed world are improving; their housing markets are on the rebound and unemployment rates are sliding. On the monetary front, central banks remain accommodative, interest rates are at historic lows and the yield curve is steep. Furthermore, inflationary pressures remain subdued in the vast majority of the developed nations; thereby exerting downward pressure on long dated interest rates.

Admittedly, the world's economy is notgrowing at breakneck speed and many investors are viewing this as a bad omen for the stock market. However, as we have explained previously, as an investor, you do not want the economy to expand at torrid pace; and in the current landscape, bad news is good news!

Thursday, June 05, 2014

The S&P 500 continues to hit new all time highs, but is your portfolio built on a house of cards? The politics to kick the proverbial can down the road may unleash dynamics that could be hazardous to your wealth.

The one thing politicians throughout the world have in common is that they rarely ever blame themselves. They tend to diffuse responsibility or place blame on groups such as political opponents, the wealthy, or foreigners.

Thursday, June 05, 2014

Many commentators are asking whether this market is showing real signs of exhaustion, suggesting that it is time to get out, go to cash, and wait for a serious correction or collapse to jump back in.

To try to answer this question let us look at the situation from a more distant perspective than the standard one. Accordingly, I am going to adopt a 6 year view using the following charts set out below: 1. The Dow Transports, 2. The Dow Industrials, 3. The S & P 500, 4. The NASDAQ 100, 5. The Russell 2000 (small cap. stocks: weekly), The Russell 2000 (small cap. stocks: daily), 7. The NYSE A/D Line and 8. The index of the percentage of stocks above their 200 DMA.

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